Typology and Logical Structure of Natural Languages
نویسنده
چکیده
This paper focuses on some relationships between logic and natural languages, a topic that is crucial in Western philosophy (From Aristotle, to medieval Modistae, to Leibniz and the founders of modern mathematical logic). Speciically, the search for a universal grammar is considered in connection with linguistic typology (see Green-berg's Universals of Grammar) and formalisms for knowledge representation (see Kamp, Moore). A preliminary investigation proves that usual linguistic concepts could be incorporated into a formal theory of general explicative power. This suggests a logical theory of grammars, where classical linguistic analysis is generalized and formalized. The conceptual and terminological apparatus of traditional grammars has two serious limitations: Greek-Latin dependence and informal (semantic and pragmatic) aspects. We show that the elimination of these features provides a suitable basis for expressing intrinsic linguistic phenomena. As a consequence, a theory of logico-grammatical functionalities is outlined that determines a formalismfor discourse representation, very close to Reichenbach's Logic of conversational language and similar theories (e.g. Wein-reich). Some short historical remarks explain our line of thought, and the diierences with formal approaches innuenced by Chomsky and Montague. Finally, a formal analysis of several examples is developed, and the applicability of the formalism considered is examined in relation to further investigations.
منابع مشابه
Language Review/A New Approach to the Systematic Typology of Languages: Introduction and Review of Fundamentals of Linguistic Typology, Rafe’eh Khoshkhoo
متن کامل
Measures of fuzzy disarray in linguistic typology
We extend crisp measures of disarray to the vaguely defined context of natural languages, so as to tackle problems of linguistic typology related to the order of words. We deal both with short abstract structure of the type “subject verb object”, and with texts in the original language and in a translation. Preliminary experimental results are provided.
متن کاملThe Significance of African Sign Languages for African Linguistics and Sign Language Studies
Sign languages are the natural languages of deaf people and deaf communities. In the past 50 years, an impressive number of sign languages have come to be studied from a modern linguistic perspective, generating ground-breaking insights into the influence of the communicative channel on language structure. However, only a handful of these studies concern sign languages on the African continent....
متن کاملTypology of the terrace of historic houses in Najafabad
Najafabad is one of the cities of Isfahan province, which is called the oldest new city in Iran. Despite research related to the special urban planning of this Safavid city, and in terms of increasing renovation of historic houses and their importance as part of the history of architecture, so far no research has been published on what are the historic houses of this city and their typology. Th...
متن کاملInvestigating Translation Strategies of Culture-Specific Items in Alignment with Nord’s Binary Translation Typology: A Case Study of Unaccustomed Earth
Culture is an extremely complex concept. Translating cultural elements is a demanding task due to the fact that these elements comprise specific meanings and implications belonging exclusively to the lan-guage and culture from which they have emerged. Regarding this point, the present article investigated the strategies employed for translating culture-specific items (CSIs) in an English nov...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
عنوان ژورنال:
دوره شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 1993